Information to members

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We have received several requests to submit papers for presentation at the 3rd European Conference of Aerospace Medicine, after the deadline of 31st August. We are aware that the date fell during the vacation period for many authors. To be fair to all, we have decided to extend the deadline until the end of September. ESAM is pleased to be able to offer financial support with expenses in attending the meeting, to succesful authors, of a maximum of 300 euros. We look forward to receiving your paper, and seeing you at the meeting.

Time to write what is likely to be my last blog as Vice President, but don’t worry I plan to continue blogging as President. I say time because that has been rather limited recently, as I have just returned from three weeks in Australia following attending the ICASM in Melbourne, followed very shortly after by a weekend in Dublin attending the last meeting of the current Executive Committee.

The conference was excellent, well organised with good scientific sessions and matched by truly memorable social events. The dinners in the Australian Club and at the Melbourne cricket ground were true ‘fine dining’ and being mistaken for James Bond at the former was the ‘icing on the cake’. Is this not every man’s fantasy?

I vividly recall my first meeting with Roland, at Eurocontrol, at a time when my Association was, how shall I put this, rather ambivalent about joining the club. Appearances can be deceptive, and I soon came to recognise a consummate diplomat, who is passionate and energetic about promoting European Aerospace Harmony.

As the lambs frolic in the fields, and the flowers in the garden burst into bloom, it is a good time to reflect on ESAM’s rapid growth, and future direction. Just like a plant, an organisation like ESAM needs to ensure that it has strong roots to sustain its growth and development. For this reason the Executive Committee (EC) have recently agreed a strategy document, to set the direction for the coming years. DON’T PANIC!

It is not a weighty tome, being a few pages long. It will appear on the site shortly after this blog, so we would be very grateful if you could read it. You may have to forgive the references to Monty Python and Star Trek, both major influences on my writing style!

I have just returned from attending the congress of the Slovenian Society of Aerospace Medicine in Ljubljana, held at the Josef-Stefan Institute.

The meeting was organised by Tomaz Kozelj, President of the Society. I gave two presentations. The first about the history and future direction of ESAM. The second, an AMEs view of the implementation of the new EASA rules in the United Kingdom, and their implications for the future.This provoked a lively debate amongst the delegates.

A quick reflection on the ECAM in London, as the dust has now settled! Most delegates seem to have enjoyed the weekend. We had 240 delegates on day one, and 190 on day 2, so the largest ECAM so far. The whole event was a lot of hard work and I am grateful to the organising committee from AAME and ESAM for all their support. Thanks also to the selection committee for the abstracts, to 3D Performance our conference organisers, and to the Simulator team from BA.

It's been quiet on this blog for a while so it is time for an update. The EC, together with ex-EC members, and some who have been involved since the birth of ESAM, met for the weekend of the 9th and 10th of February at the Furstenfeldbruck base of the German airforce, near Munich. The meeting was very well attended, representing both old and new in ESAM's development.

Sorry for the period of ‘radio silence’ recently. I have been very busy with my daughter’s wedding in Scotland (photos of me wearing a kilt are available for those with a strong constitution !). Plus I organised the meeting of the Association of Aviation Medical Examiners at King’s College in April, which certainly kept me busy. Between these I spoke at the AMABEL meeting in Brussels on an AME’s experience of the new EASA regulations, which seemed to be well received.

We work together across Europe to promote the health, performance and safety of people who fly, through the use of evidence, science and consensus.

The EC met recently in Paris, and the words above are the outcome of our strategy session in Furstenfeldbruck in February, and further debate in Paris. It is important that we have a concise description of what ESAM does, and after much ‘wordsmithing’, we agreed on the statement. We hope that you approve.

I am back at home after a successful EC meeting and the General Assembly in Friedrichshafen, but just for a couple of weeks before departing to Jerusalem for ICASM. Many thanks to our German, Swiss and Austrian hosts for making us so welcome at the Drei-Laender Tagung conference. We covered a lot of work in the EC meeting on Saturday morning, in particular discussing the project to look at aeromedical risk assessment of mental health and psycho-social factors, with an emphasis on a preventive and a partnership approach. This very exciting work is likely to be at the top of our agenda for the next few years.

After 6 years and 3 terms of chairing and building up our wonderful Association, ESAM, time has come for me to pass the ship to a new captain, Kevin Herbert, Chairman of the UK AME Association and current Vice-president of ESAM. It has been an intensive and time consuming period, but it has given so much back in the richness and warmth of contacts from all over Europe and the joy of harnessing the desire, which was fundamentally there in all national associations, to work together in a pan-European setting.

Christmas has come and gone and I hope you have had an enjoyable and peaceful break, with a chance to relax and meet up with family and friends. As we approach the New Year I would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous year, and hope to meet as many of you as possible at the European Conference of Aerospace Medicine, ECAM4, in Bucharest, from 5th to 7th September.

The Executive Committee held a very successful meeting in Naples over the weekend of 18-19th February. We are grateful to the inimitable Paulo Tosco for his impeccable organisation of the weekend, not least for the sizeable discounts at the various restaurants we used.

We were joined at the meeting by Patricia Jung, standing in for Andreas Adrian, and Lars Tjensvoll and Anthony Wagstaff, who presented their work on EASA safety groups.

ESAM

The European Society of Aerospace Medicine was founded in 2006 as an umbrella organisation in the field of Aerospace Medicine. As a pan-European, independent forum, it works to promote the safety and health of all persons involved in aviation and space operations , and to coordinate European aerospace medical interests across all national and organisational boundaries.